text: Review : Mac OS X 10.7 Lion updated 08:30 am EDT, Tue July 19, 2011 by MacNN Staff Apple uses iOS as a launch point for a new approach to the Mac. MacNN Rating: Product Manufacturer: Apple Price: $30 The Good Greatly improved multi-touch awareness. Mission Control better at sorting clutter than pure Exposé. Launchpad exposes apps to newcomers. More accessible but still capable Mail interface. Auto-save and resume. FaceTime and Mac App Store already loaded. Quick install process. Potential of iCloud. Low $30 upgrade price. Key improvements to FileVault, Safari, Time Machine. The Bad Launchpad slightly overwhelming and limited. Mail not as good at coping with large daily message counts. No straightforward way to make a Lion install disc or drive. Dodgy Address Book and iCal visual changes. No built-in Java; no Rosetta at all. May face a tough challenge from Windows 8, whenever it ships. Getting started: the Mac App Store and the boot drive question It's very clear from the outset that Lion is a sharp break from any mainstream desktop OS just by how you get it on your system: if you haven't bought a Mac preloaded with the new OS from the start, you have to visit the Mac App Store. That's a mixed bag to us. For anyone already using Snow Leopard, it's certainly very convenient; you don't have to trudge to the store. You have no disc to break, and if you ever need to install again, you never have to worry that you've lost your copy as long as you're online. Apple has an edge over Microsoft here, too. Windows 7 is technically downloadable, but it's a web-based and frankly awkward process meant mostly for netbook owners. The Mac App Store potentially makes corporate deployments a lot easier. You don't have to go through the process of setting up a network install if you don't want to (though you can), and nor are workers stuck if you want them to move to Lion should they telecommute or otherwise sit outside the local network. More importantly, you don't have to tie dozens, hundreds, or thousands of licenses to physical copies; a redemption code is all that's needed. Wrapped up in that streamlining, though, are a number of very big caveats. To have access to the Mac App Store, you're going to need Snow Leopard. If you have Tiger or Leopard, you're currently left out to dry; at least as of this writing, Apple had no intention to ship physical copies other than what will show on recovery drives. And as you might expect, this also entails having a fast Internet connection. Many of us have a speedy Internet connection, but if you're on slow broadband, dial-up, or service with a low bandwidth cap, upgrading will be slow and possibly expensive. We downloaded Lion quickly enough on our 10Mbps home connection, but your mileage will vary. The real concern for the download-only route is the worst case scenario: what if you need to reinstall? Apple doesn't have a ready-made, bootable image, so you can't simply burn a disc or make a USB thumb drive. There is a fairly simple way to make a bootable image by extracting an image file (InstallESD) from a folder in the Lion installer and burning an image, but it's not very Apple-like. We wish Apple had a more direct approach for those that aren't familiar with exploring app packages or might be nervous around Disk Utility. Thankfully, the install process is a little bit brisker than before, however you go about it. We noticed fewer prompts, and since the OS installer is usually already on your hard drive, it's fast. Our 15-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.4GHz Core i5 and a 5,400RPM hard drive took slightly under half an hour from starting through to reaching the Lion desktop, and nearly all of this was hands-off. Interestingly, Apple has decided to forego much of the install ceremony. There's no opening video or elaborate setup process. You do, however, get something very rare from Apple: a tutorial. A splash screen shows you how to perform some of the multi-touch gestures Lion can use. It's helpful if you're genuinely new, and as we'll soon see, it's actually quite important to wring the most out of what the OS has to offer. Finder changes, AirDrop, and multi-touch gestures Just getting around in Finder, the basic navigation interface, has some visible changes. By default, a Finder window now launches to a new section known as All My Files. It's effectively a visual, intelligent browser that shows all the content from your home folder by type and date, with browsing that's an unusual mix between the usual Finder view and Cover Flow-style horizontal icons. We can see it being useful for newcomers, but in our experience, you'll want to change the default view to something else before long. It works if you regularly go back to a few recent files every day, but it falls apart if you have to dig through archives or create content often. One thing you'll see in your first Finder window that does work is AirDrop. In some ways, it' s redundant if you already have a local network established. As a solution to "sneakernet" file transfers (i.e. physical drives), though, it's slick. You just need to be on AirDrop at the same time on the same local network, and it figures out the rest. A lot of the look has been refined and seems to have that last bit of polish to make everything flow. Buttons are now more squarish and, dare we say, tasteful. It's not as distinctive but it's also less 'cute' and a sign that Apple is largely done with its original, slightly precious Aqua look. Pop-up windows now actually pop; there are considerably more visual transitions, even just as a copied file slides into place. None of this really impacts usability, but there are some instances where it clearly illustrates what's going on better than Snow Leopard and earlier versions could manage. iOS' automatic spelling correction is present, too, and can hurt or help you depending on how well you type and how often you go beyond regular words; as you'd expect, you can turn it off. You'll also probably notice what's missing in the first real sign of an iOS-style interface change: there's no scroll bars. As long as you're using a MacBook trackpad, the Magic Trackpad, or a Magic Mouse, you'll only ever see scrolling elements when you're actually scrolling. You'd think this would be disconcerting, and it does make jumping to a specific point in a document slightly more difficult, but we grew to like it. The change gives back more space in areas you'd most appreciate it, such as a web browser. There's an appeal to the iOS-style kinetic scrolling, too, complete with the "bounce" that tells you that you've reached the end of a list or page. Mulit-touch gestures go a very long way towards improving the experience -- we'd go so far as to say it's one of those undeniable, major advantages Mac OS X has over Windows, possibly even over Windows 8. Apple has always had excellent two-finger scrolling and zoom mechanisms; Lion introduces a much larger range of gestures that, for the most part, make Apple's multi-touch trackpads a killer feature. On the simplest level, it's improved zoom by allowing double-taps, universal page navigation with two-page swipes, and a unique trick to look up anything in the dictionary or Wikipedia just by double-tapping with three fingers. Where it gets clever is when it's combined with other Lion features. A three-finger swipe to the left or right will bring up Dashboard or switch between full-screen apps if they're open. Swiping up is familiar and now invokes Mission Control (more on this later) instead of Expos?, but you can now "crunch" four or five fingers to bring up Launchpad or spread them out to quickly get to the desktop. If you've ever had a busy desktop on a Mac or Windows PC and had to start an app that didn't have a shortcut, you'll know why this is handy. The default scrolling direction, though, feels backwards. Apple is trying to recreate iOS' natural-feeling scrolling by inverting the direction when it detects a multi-touch input. For us, it doesn't really work. There's a fundamental disconnect when your finger isn't actually touching the screen. Thankfully, it's easy to toggle it back. We hope Apple changes it by default, although we suspect some newcomers to the Mac may not notice. We would be remiss if we didn't add one more, significant Finder touch. After decades of Mac users having to drag by just one corner, it's now possible to resize windows from any edge. It's been one of the biggest gripes of many Windows switchers, and while there have been advantages to Apple's previous policy, it's no longer a point of resistance. We've had no issues accidentally resizing windows. Resume, Versions, and full-screen apps The ability to pick up where you left off is one of the most valuable parts of iOS, so it's no surprise Apple has built it into Lion. If you have to restart without closing anything, you can leave apps open and expect them to come back to the way they were before. Anyone with a daily routine will like it, and if you have a solid-state drive like in the MacBook Air, the experience will be nearly transparent. On a rotating hard drive like on our MacBook Pro, it does add to the load times, so you may not want to leave Final Cut Pro open before you choose "Shut Down." Accordingly, Apple has brought in auto-saving as a regular feature. It's not available in many legacy apps, but a number of built-in apps and future third-party titles will now save themselves regularly, both at regular intervals in the background and when you quit. If you like, an app like Numbers or TextEdit never has to save by hand. It's a definite relief if you're prone to quitting apps absent-mindedly or are the sort who compulsively hits Command-S on the keyboard, and it doesn't necessarily make manual saves go away if you like to safeguard your files on your own. it's here that Apple has also caught up and in some ways passed Windows, with Versions. Time Machine has served as a way to recover an older version of a file since 2007, but Lion now has the ability from Windows Vista and 7 to recover a previous version in between backups or without a backup drive at all. Clicking on the title of an app window will usually give an option to "browse previous versions" and will invoke the Versions interface on the spot. The implementation still has the somewhat gimmicky floating-in-space interface of Time Machine but is very intuitive and let us quickly jump back to what we'd saved a few minutes or a few hours ago with an easy side-by-side comparison of the contents. More importantly, it's much better exposed than in Windows 7. As much as Microsoft has improved its interfaces, its versioning is buried and harder to use; many people we know don't even realize it exists, which hands Apple a big real-world advantage. Full-screen app support is a slightly more contentious iOS crossover. Many core apps, and eventually third-party apps, have a full-screen toggle button that hides the menu bar and Dock to literally fill the screen with a given app. But it's not a simple maximize like in Windows: it not only takes up more of the screen, it changes the interface, too. In iCal or Mail, for example, interface elements automatically sharpen, widen, or otherwise adapt. It's easy to drop back to a regular view by mousing to the top to reveal the menu bar, and like we mentioned earlier, three-finger swipes to the left or right will switch between full-screen apps without having to jump to Mission Control or the task switcher. The feature's usefulness depends entirely on your habits and the size of your screen. For us, it looks to be most useful if you're running a MacBook Air or are setting up a kiosk for a store. It's an easy way to reclaim a lot of workspace and get a clean interface. The actual interface changes, though, are so far usually modest. Someone with a modern iMac or a 17-inch MacBook Pro may see little advantage over just making the window larger. Launchpad, Mission Control, and Dashboard Apple's intent to bring its mobile experience into the Mac is by far the most evident in Launchpad. Quite literally, it's a direct replication of the iOS home screen (often known as Springboard) app launcher on the Mac. Apps are spread over a linear grid across multiple pages, and you can both sort apps as well as group them into folders just by dragging icons on top of one another. Although Apple might be reluctant to admit it, this is effectively the Mac's equivalent of Windows' Start menu. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and in some ways, Apple's doing it more effectively. The grid is an easily understood and much more visual metaphor, and reorganizing it isn't nearly the pain that it can be in Windows. Moreover, it's a tremendous help to those new to the Mac or who simply use more apps than fit in the Dock. No longer is it necessary to wade through Finder windows or run a Spotlight search to find that game you've been meaning to play or a new utility. With that said, it's not flawless. Launchpad is clearly designed for those who don't have a large number of apps, and it can actually be slightly intimidating if you have dozens or hundreds. Apple is also making the presumption that all your apps live in the Applications folder. As good a general assumption that is, it breaks down when you have apps that sit in sub-folders or on another part of your drive altogether. We'd like it if Apple could help auto-sort apps or scan more of a Mac's apps to find everything a user might have. Mission Control is more directly linked to the Mac tradition and, in a contrast to much of what Lion is doing, is more focused on power users than beginners. It merges Expos? and Spaces into one unified area. Some have complained that it hurts Expos? by cutting out its usable space or partly concealing windows. In our experience, it's tangibly more useful: it visually labels windows by their app icons and stacks them in a way that helps easily identify which exact window you need. Only a small group of people will ever use Spaces, though like Launchpad, its implementation is as much about making a feature accessible as anything else. Before, Spaces was partly hidden and not always easy to control if you didn't have the Dock icon handy. Now, it's in the same place you use to switch app windows and simplifies not just jumping between Spaces but drilling down to a particular app within a given Space. It's still the easiest implementation of virtual desktops we've seen, and it's something Windows normally doesn't do well. Dashboard is mostly the same as it was in every version of Mac OS X so far and to us is a less chaotic and more accessible approach to widgets than what Windows Vista and 7 manage. This time, though, it's on a separate screen, not an overlay. That cuts both ways. As much as it removes clutter, it also prevents you from keeping a website or a note open in the background to use as reference for a widget, such as a tracking number or the name of that wine you were looking for. The change is far from a deal breaker but slightly unfortunate. Mail, iCal, Address Book While there have been cosmetic and feature changes in Mail since it first shipped in Mac OS X, it's in many ways been one of the more conservative parts of the platform for the past decade. Not so in Lion: Apple has largely overhauled the basic approach to the app. And once again, it takes its cue from iOS. It's at first a bit of a shock if you're used to a conventional e-mail client with loads of information. Like on an iPad, the stock view shows nothing but a list of messages in a column on the left and previews of the messages themselves on the right. As jarring as it may be if you're used to seeing a swell of information on the screen, there's a definite beauty to it for actually focusing on messages. One of the strengths of the iPad as a traveller's companion has been its ability to focus on messages and let you quickly triage them, a trait that mostly carries over here. There's other simplicities, too; the message headers are now a lot cleaner by default, and frequently quoted segments in a long conversation are cut out. We love the conversation view, which goes beyond what you see on the tablet: it shows the messages themselves as soon as you click on a thread. Many controls are now inline, too, and the top interface is now more reminiscent of Safari's clean interface. Surprisingly, there's a few touches for power users. Finally, it's possible to not just flag a message but color-code and personalize the flag so you can separate important work messages from personal ones. Searches are more intelligent and bring in suggestions, attachment searching, and turning search terms into tokens. Exchange 2010 is built-in and lets users craft the at times notorious out-of-office notices without having to switch apps. Importantly, you're also not locked into Apple's ultra-simple look, either: there's a toggle to show the full folder organization if you need or want a complex folder layout. Quirks? Our main issue is clearing out a large number of messages. Admittedly, you don't need the iPad's "edit" button to clear out a batch of specific messages (a Command-click on each message will do), but it's harder than it was before to purge your inbox if you regularly get several dozen or hundreds of messages each day. In the interface's stock form, Apple also now requires an extra click to check the trash. We'd add that the stock button layout omits decidedly handy features such as one-click archiving and marking folders as read, though these can be added in. Full-screen mode is again handy if you've got a MacBook Air but feels slightly superfluous on anything with a bigger screen. Even with these, though, Mail now feels like it has a distinctive value over other mail clients, like Entourage or Thunderbird. It's the genuinely uncluttered option and may even be the best if you regularly have long back-and-forth e-mail chats. iCal has taken a similarly minimalist tone that works for the most part. Many things that were once in a side bar are now in pop-up menus. Apple has at last improved how it handles very short-term and very long-term scheduling, too. The day view now focuses on the itinerary of already scheduled events so you're not hunting through to see what's coming up. A new yearly view is much more helpful for jumping a few months ahead to plan a major event or just to get an overview of a much larger schedule. A few other helpful features exist, such as intelligent event creation based on keywords ("Apple keynote at 10AM" will automatically timestamp it, for example). For some reason, though, Apple has decided to take an unusual sidestep and introduce real-world interface metaphors to iCal after several years of a synthetic look. iCal now has the appearance of a slightly gaudy-looking tan desk calendar with torn off pages. It doesn't hurt the usability of the app, but it's an odd decision, especially when more and more of Apple's audience will have never even seen a desk calendar, let alone used one. We suspect Apple may have been worried it wouldn't be visibly different than Mail, but we would have preferred a toned down look. Address Book, as a close companion, similarly makes the late decision to go to a real-world analogy, although at least here it's subtler and makes more sense. It does add a much-needed support for starting a FaceTime call and can flag whether or not someone's online for instant messaging. Things we know: FaceTime, the Mac App Store, Safari We won't dip too deeply into components that were already post-launch introductions in Snow Leopard, but they're worth noting now that they're stock features. FaceTime is much as it's been and is often the easiest way to video chat with an iOS user or a fellow Mac user, at least if you're willing to operate outside of existing IM and Skype. Lion increases FaceTime's value and asks you to sign in with your Apple ID right from the start; it's a small difference, but it virtually guarantees a Lion user will also be a FaceTime user. The Mac App Store is likewise almost the same in Lion, though it now handles in-app purchases and, as a standard feature, might get more traction. Our view on it has been ambivalent. It's an excellent way for newcomers to find Mac apps and is very convenient if you have multiple Macs and don't want to be bothered visiting developer websites or copying files to bring an app over. At the same time, though, some of the limitations of iOS App Store are here. Apple bans certain kinds of apps and content, and it usually takes a deeper cut of the revenues than if you buy a download-only version from the developer; it won't show the full potential of the Mac. Still, it's a very convenient way to discover apps, and unlike on iOS, Apple gives you the freedom to get apps from outside of the store. Safari in Lion follows a tradition Apple has been building of adding OS-specific features that don't necessarily show up in the same version for other platforms. Reading List will be somewhat familiar to anyone who has used Readability (and to some extent, Instapaper) as a way to set aside sites for reading later without having to leave tabs open or to transfer them over to an iOS device after a sync. Our favorite change is the much improved download mechanism, which uses an elegant pop-up to show your download status and will let you drag a file directly from the status to the desktop if you want to start working with it. Multi-touch is visibly more useful in Safari: we much prefer the iOS-style double-taps and pinches to zoom. Swiping back and forth through history provides a much more natural look. Going to a new OS gives Apple some much-needed performance and stability improvements that go a long way towards closing the gap with the current speed champion, Google's Chrome. The interface and the actual web engine are now run on separate process; it's not the same as Chrome's one-process-per-tab approach, but it does mean a slow script won't drag down all of Safari. Apple also now has some Internet Explorer 9-like graphics acceleration for HTML5's Canvas, so visually intensive web apps run tangibly better. And while sandboxing had already been present to some extent, both the websites themselves and any in-page app (plugin or otherwise) is now fenced off, so you should see fewer instances of not just malware but unintentional glitches and slowdowns from a poorly handled page. Extras: iChat, backup, scripting, search, security As with most new Mac OS X releases, there are many under-the-hood features that don't necessarily amount to much by themselves but combined have a significant impact. iChat we consider valuable just because it's cleaned up and streamlined. We don't know too many people who will need their Yahoo friends, but anyone who needs iChat will like the features borrowed from multi-network IM clients, including unified buddy lists (no more two or three windows), a universal status, and a quick search for a given contact. Apple hasn't replaced Adium for many -- where's the Windows Live Messenger support? -- but it has given more reasons to stay on iChat if you already use it. Time Machine has been given a boost in a subtler but arguably much more valuable way that acknowledges the reality of a notebook user. It now provides a very small amount of local backups when not plugged into a Time Machine drive that are even folded back into your main Time Machine updates when you come back, so you theoretically don't have to worry about losing files mid-trip or that you only have one version when you get back. Tying into this are some very important changes to FileVault. Apple's encryption now finally handles an entire drive and can recognize external drives, including Time Machine. A common complaint with FileVault has been its inability to stop a grab-and-go theft that would take a backup, and it's appreciated to get that resolved. Performance is much faster, too; we no longer had to watch the system bog down as it rolled a large set of new files into the encrypted volume. We didn't try a new instant wipe feature that deletes a FileVault key and purges the disk, but if you're in a situation where you're determined to clear out a system as soon as possible, it's there. Spotlight searching is now tangibly more useful; we loved that we could grab a file directly from the menu or preview results directly from the list. The results are no longer limited to offline, either, and will pull up web or Wikipedia searches. And for those who regularly use scripting, there's a few welcome changes. AppleScript has pre-made templates and can focus a script on a particular app. Automator has been updated both to use the new auto-saves and versioning, and there are new tricks such as converting text into an ePub book, pointing to whole web content, or encoding audiovisual content from the desktop. Performance and the questions of Java and Rosetta With a relatively small subset of systems to test on, we haven't had the option of testing edge case systems to see how they run. We can say that, on our dual-core 2.4GHz Core i5 with 4GB of RAM, there's no tangible difference in performance for us versus Snow Leopard, including in games. Apple has, however, upped the requirements to demand at least a Core 2 Duo and is excluding some Intel-based systems for the first time. That's mostly limited to 2006-era Core Duo and Core Solo systems but could be a problem for those who are running Snow Leopard smoothly on a higher-end system from the time, particularly a Mac Pro. We've heard (but not confirmed) that Lion may demand more RAM in practice. Battery life doesn't seem to have taken a significant hit; in a "real" test with websites using a significant amount of Flash, we typically got about 6.25 hours of battery life with our MacBook Pro with screen brightness at about a third, which is about what we had before in similar conditions. We'll keep an eye on battery life to see if there's any noticeable reductions or improvements in the longer term. Legacy users will want to keep an eye out for two features that are being dropped, if partially in one case, with the new OS. Apple has decided to stop its own internal development of Java and considers it a "deprecated" technology. Should you need it for apps, don't assume it'll be available with a fresh install. It's not cut out of the loop, though, either officially or otherwise. If you try to run an app that depends on Java code, such as CyberDuck's FTP client or even some versions of Photoshop, Lion will automatically offer to download the OpenJDK for Mac much as Snow Leopard offered Rosetta when it wasn't already installed. Every app we use that needs Java ran properly on our test Mac, so there's a good chance you won't see any disruption for awhile, if ever. The same can't be said for Rosetta proper. It's gone altogether. If you still depend on PowerPC-based apps for your work, you'll either want to stay on Snow Leopard or look into modern, Intel-native alternatives. For some apps, most notably certain versions of Quicken, this could be a definite problem without up-to-date code. It's hard to completely sympathize with most other affected users, though. Lion is shipping about five years after the last PowerPC Mac rolled out of the factory and not much less time after universal or Intel-only apps became commonplace. We'll add that Windows users can't lay claim to legacy app support like they once did, either. Windows 7 requires a virtual machine to run some apps that won't load in anything newer than Windows XP. Windows 8 will be an even bigger shock: to get a true W8-native app not only requires coding a new interface but using different development tools. This isn't to completely excuse Apple but does underscore a broader attempt to clear out legacy support. A note on iCloud Lion to some extent is a loaded cannon. An important feature, iCloud, isn't truly active yet. As of the time we were writing the review in mid-July, you could still see MobileMe in the preferences and had to use it that way. When iCloud does go live, it should eliminate some of the problems of multi-Mac syncing. Calendars, contacts, and mail will now optionally sync for free to other Macs and to iOS devices. Apple is also promising automated cloud file saving for apps like the iWork suite and for the most recent 1,000 photos in iPhoto. Cloud services have existed either built into other operating systems or available as add-ons; Microsoft's SkyDrive fulfills some of that goal, for example, and Dropbox for some is enough. Google's Chrome OS is even based around the idea of using the web, where information is by its very nature in sync. How Apple's solution works out in practice remains to be seen. To put it mildly, Apple has had a rough history with online services. If it works as advertised, though, it should have some of the more transparent sync we'll have seen in an OS with native apps, if without as much control as third-party alternatives. Wrapping up Some in the Windows-centric media have a tendency to accuse Apple of asking users to pay for what in Windows would amount to a service pack. We can see some of the point, since Apple is rarely instituting fundamental interface changes in the same way an OS like Windows XP or 7 might. With the exceptions of perhaps 10.1 and 10.6, though, many of the changes have been visible and often substantial; some of those critics may be getting hung up on public version numbering (XP was 'just' Windows NT 5.1, after all). Lion can't be painted with the same brush. It's not the radical break that Windows 8 will be; it's not a mild update, either. Enough will change in your day-to-day experience that it will be noticeable, most of all if your'e using a recent enough MacBook. And as Apple's second update in two years to cost $30, Apple is at the very least setting a reasonable level of expectations, if not moving past them. While we think Windows 7 is a worthy upgrade, some have complained that Microsoft is charging a minimum of $120 for the OS for what amounts to a "fix" for Vista. Upgrading a Windows PC isn't likely to get cheaper with a very conspicuous change on the level of Windows 8, which most now expect to ship sometime in mid-2012. If you're a Mac user, we feel it's worth the upgrade, though it's not such a leap that you'd have to upgrade immediately. Apple has managed to straddle a fine line between bringing in iOS features and accommodating long-time Mac users without pushing things too far. There are so many noticeable and welcome interface changes that you miss them when you go back. Lion feels more cohesive and has interface changes that simplify the experience, taking steps out without appearing to shed features. If you paid attention to the review, there were a number of instances where completing a task went from several steps (most often wading through Finder) to just one or two; that's progress. Some points do skirt the edge of acceptable. Apple's decision to port the iOS home screen over wholesale to the Mac through Launchpad could be the definitive example. In some ways it's useful, but the addition brings over the warts the iOS home screen has, as well. We'd like more customization of how Mail works. Both the Address Book and iCal changes seem arbitrary. And without the option of a bootable Lion drive without some minor exploration, reinstalling will be a hassle for those who bought a Mac before Lion shipped. Even so, we get the sense that Lion is a coup because of what some of more contentious changes do: they expose more of Mac OS X's features to Windows users. If you're an iPhone user who's been tempted enough to get a Mac, Launchpad gives you a familiar anchor for your expectations. Mail gives an immediate frame of reference that's arguably less intimidating than even Windows Mail. Finder's new feedback and transitions could well be present as much to reassure a switcher as they are to take advantage of what Apple has learned in four years of iOS development. The ultimate question is, of course, how Lion stacks up against various flavors of Windows. We have tremendous respect for Windows 7, but it does feel slightly old now that Lion has shown some easier ways to get things done. It's hard to argue that mousing over Windows taskbar icons one at a time or using Flip is really a faster way of choosing the app window you want than Mission Control, for example. In a sense, Lion has helped Apple break out of the rut every major OS developer faces without feeling it has to unmake everything. As for Windows 8? It does promise to shake up the industry, but it remains to be seen whether someone with a conventional desktop will want to see the same tiled, touch-focused interface as someone with a tablet. Windows Phone 7 hasn't taken off with a very similar interface. There's also the question of timing. With a mid-2012 release to manufacturing, the near-complete rethink in Windows 8 almost doesn't matter if Apple will have Lion on computers for roughly a full year. As clich? as it is, Steve Jobs meant it when he once said "real artists ship:" of the two biggest next-generation operating systems, only one of them is actually available to buy in 2011.


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Steam Greenlight Spotlight: DreadOut
Posted: 05:47PM
Author: ClayMeow
DreadOut is a third-person survival horror game being developed by Indonesian studio Digital Happiness. It's a modern take on Fatal Frame with an Indonesian horror mythology flare. The first Fatal Frame (Project Zero in Europe and Zero in Japan) was released in 2001 for PlayStation 2 and eventually Xbox, and is widely regarded as one of the best survival horror games of all time. Its main mechanic is using a camera to photograph ghosts in order to destroy them. DreadOut uses this same mechanic, but with more modern devices, such as a smartphone.
You do not have to love Fatal Frame in order to enjoy DreadOut, you just need to want a true survival horror experience. If you have enjoyed the last three Resident Evil games (not counting spin-offs) more than the original three, then walk away now – DreadOut eschews action for tense, atmospheric horror. There's no running and gunning here, and while there is a Sprint ability, you'll more than likely be cautiously moving along, praying that nothing scares the crap out of you around the next corner.
DreadOut takes place in an "authentic local Indonesian setting" where a group of high school students on vacation stumbled upon a deserted town. This being a survival horror game, said town is unsurprisingly haunted. You control one of the Asian schoolgirls named Linda, with the aforementioned smartphone at your disposal, along with a digital camera and digital video camera, according to the game's description. You can see the smartphone in the video below, which is footage from the demo. While the demo is a healthy 500-600MB, depending on your platform (PC, Mac, or Linux), I really urge you to try it out. Nothing I say can fully illustrate the atmosphere and tension you feel while playing it. Lighting is very sparse in the demo and the audio is superbly done, providing a perfectly eerie feel. I do strongly advise that you hit ESC after starting the game to view the Tutorial, which is simply a static screen that explains the key game elements, such as blurred, colored screen borders under certain situations.
While the demo is short, Digital Happiness promises a "thrilling storyline full of twists," varying gameplay elements, and several authentic Indonesian ghosts to encounter. While the main storyline will be linear, there will also be "options to further explore the world and solve the mysteries within" through optional side quests. There will also be Facebook integration that allows you to share photos you've collected, if you so choose. But don't worry, there's no always-on requirement – the game is DRM-free.
If you like what you see, there is currently an Indiegogo campaign with 22 days remaining (as Digital Happiness is an Indonesian studio, Kickstarter is not available). A minimum of $15 nets you a digital copy of the game upon its release, while additional contributions provide you various extras, both physical and digital. While DreadOut is certainly not for everybody, I could not resist choosing it as this week's Spotlight. If AAA developers are going to abandon pure survival horror (we'll see what The Enemy Within brings), at least indie developers are willing to step up to the challenge!
Previous Spotlight: Frozen Endzone. Favorite the OCC Steam Greenlight Spotlight Collection. And don't forget to visit the forum thread.

subset: commoncrawl


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Multiple realities
(covers information from several alternate timelines)
(covers information from several alternate timelines)
A class of starship was a term referring to the design of a group of vessels built to the specifications, capabilities, modifications, or type arrangement and outfitting. Many cultures named separate series or classes based on these qualities. A starship classification was usually used to refer to the general abilities of a vessel, but a specific class designation referred to its shape or layout in differing degrees, according to how specific species and cultures used the term.
See also: Category:Starships.
External linksEdit
- Starship classes at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Star Trek Ships: Expanded at The STArchive
This category has the following 29 subcategories, out of 29 total.
Pages in category "Starship classes"
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Windows 8 Has just been released, and to be honest it is the only desktop os that is optimized for touch. Google's Chrome OS has major potential and I think the price point they are aiming for could make it a major competitor in the Desktop OS market.
The Competition
Like I said before, windows 8 is going to be the major competition. Thats is not to ignore OSX. Lets be honest though, Apple probably wont be releasing an update that incorporates touch anytime soon, and as polished as their interface is it lacks so much functionality (widgets and such) it would be DOA.
Chrome/Android Fusion OS
This is where I would mindlessly through my money at Google. A laptop (like the new samsung Chrome laptop) that has a touchscreen, Android UI, and the Chrome OS desktop. A good comparison would be Windows 8 and how the live tiles are similar to a Windows 8 phone but you still have the option of launching into the old familiar desktop. Imagine that, but with Android and Chrome OS!!! All the widgets, Play Store, and more in one device that is aimed towards being the at home desktop os, aso well as the mobile OS.
What do you think? Could it be the next big thing form google or am I just dreaming of something that will never happen?


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Knee Injuries
Please Note: By clicking a link to any resource listed on this page, you will be leaving the TeensHealth site.
National Athletic Trainers' Association
This site contains information on certified athletic trainers and tips on preventing and healing sports injuries.
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC)
The website of NCIPC contains a variety of injury prevention information.
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS)
The AAOS provides information for the public on sports safety, and bone, joint, muscle, ligament and tendon injuries or conditions.
American Physical Therapy Association
This organization provides information on physical therapy, from therapists in each state to current research.
American College of Sports Medicine
This site has tips on staying safe while playing sports and exercising.


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That's not only a poor Scrabble score but we also couldn't find any results matching
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89% of UK consumers think that the EU cookie law is a positive step, though 75% had not heard of the e-Privacy Directive before they were surveyed.
Funnily enough, a similar proportion of marketers (82%) in a recent Econsultancy/Toluna survey think the opposite and view the cookie law as a real threat to the web.
The stats come from a survey of 2,000 consumers carried out by eDigitalResearch and IMRG last month.
According to the IMRG's Andy Mulcahy, the directive provides "an opportunity for retailers to increase trust and loyalty through a clear, unobtrusive and customer-friendly cookie notification process".
I'm not so sure about that...
The survey results
Here's a summary of the key findings from the survey. The results broadly match those found in our recent consumer survey, though we didn't ask consumers whether they thought the directive was good for the web, as we thought it would be too tricky to explain succinctly.
I do wonder about the 89% figure. Were consumers told about the potential threat to online businesses, and their own user experience, or simply that is was a law designed to improve privacy online?
75% of the 2,000 consumers surveyed have not heard of the new EU cookie directive. Of those that had, only 16% were truly aware of what changes would come into effect on May 26th.
- After being told about the directive (wonder how long that took to explain?) 89% of those surveyed felt that it was positive for consumers and 79% agreed that the changes were needed due to the lack of public knowledge about cookies.
- 23% are happy for websites to use cookies to improve their browsing experience, which is the same number who said they would be keen to opt-in in our survey.
Are marketers and consumers that far apart?
While the difference between the views of the consumer and the marketers we surveyed may suggest that the latter are not listening to customer concerns, I think there is more to it than that.
For one, the 82% of marketers who believe the cookie law is bad for the web do not necessarily disagree with the 'spirit' of the directive, just the ham-fisted way in which it has been applied.
This is a typical comment from our survey:
While I'm all for protecting privacy, the bit of this directive that applies to cookies has been ill thought out and even more badly applied, by someone who doesn't understand the technology. Rather than try and analyse what cookies are actually intrusive, they've just 'banned' the lot!
Are you concerned about your privacy when browsing and buying online?
In short, nobody really objects to consumers being informed about the information that websites take from them and how they use it, but the directive and its implementation will possibly hinder this process.
Public perception of cookies
It's clear that users need to be educated about cookies and what they are used for, as there are many people who seem to view them as something to be feared.
33% of those surveyed by IMRG believed that cookies could be used for viruses and Trojans, while in our survey 40% said they thought cookies were bad for the web.
This is a big problem for online businesses, as many people are likely to opt-out of cookies for the wrong reasons, and this is a real threat to online businesses.
I'm all for consumers being given the information they need to make an informed decision about cookies, and if websites make cookie and privacy policies more prominent and informative as a result of this, that's no bad thing.
At Econsultancy, we have made our privacy and cookie information more prominent, and users of our site can see exactly what information we gather and why. After reading this, users can make their own decisions about whether to block cookies using their browser settings.
If the demands of the directive stopped at this point, I think there would be very few people who would argue with it.
The problem is that the demand for overt and informed consent means that, if websites comply, users will begin to see all sorts of scary messages about cookies associated with words like targeting and tracking.
Since many already see cookies as a bad thing, many are likely to say no without actually thinking, while others will just be irritated by interruptive messaging and abandon the site. Thus online businesses lose sales and revenue, while the customer is no more informed than before.
According to Lovehoney E-commerce manager (and now TV star) Matthew Curry:
Many people don't understand the technology, and the Cookies = Evil message implied by the directive is just going to make it worse. Try explaining to your average user what an affiliate is, or a session, or MVT. It's not going to work.
This HAS to be a message about privacy, and being open to your visitors about what you do in the simplest language possible.
Will the cookie law make the web safer?
Really, most consumers have nothing to fear from cookies, and they do much to improve the user experience.
Do analytics cookies do users any harm? No, they don't store any personally identifiable information, and actually allow websites to improve by learning from usage patterns.
Of course, cookies used for ad targeting are likely to be the most objectionable to web users. The words targeting and tracking conjure thoughts of Big Brother, but all they do is improve the relevance of advertising for the average user.
This is no bad thing, and people are free to ignore ads or even use adblockers to get rid of them.
I can see why people object to retargeting, and it is techniques like this which may have triggered the update to the PECR.
Then there's the point that cookie consent pop-ups hamper reputable businesses while doing nothing to safeguard consumers against dodgy sites.
This point has been well made by Martin Belam:
One of my biggest concerns with the new emphasis on gaining consent for placing cookies on a user's computer is that it means mainstream sites and businesses will spend the time and effort to make systems that will interrupt the browsing experience, whereas those that are planning nefarious activities won't bother.
Ironically the legislation will make the user experience of sites that mean you and your data harm smoother and easier than the user experience of sites that are being responsible about cookies.
Publishing and online ad revenue
We all know about the problems that many publishers are having as offline ad incomes shrink, and if newspapers are to keep their content free for consumers, then they have to make money somewhere.
Of course, some take it too far with pop-ups, interstitials etc, and spoil the user experience, but not every site. However, if users want free content by quality writers, then they have to be paid somehow, and ad targeting is one such method.
Martin Belam made this point in the comments of a Guardian article on cookies, and there wasn't much sympathy for his opinion:
I must say that on a personal level it always dismays me the number of people who are happy to come onto the Guardian site, where we rely on commercial components to pay for the journalism, and then use our free commenting platform to recommend that people use AdBlock, or disable the analytics scripts that are the only way we can measure usage of the site to prove the worth of it to advertisers.
It basically says 'I'll have your news for free thanks, and I don't even want you to be able to generate the money it has cost you in bandwidth and storage to serve the page - let alone pay for the reporting.'
Is it possible to have an "unobtrusive and customer-friendly cookie notification process" as the IMRG suggests?
I'd say it's tricky. It's well documented that any barrier to the user's progress through a website, such as compulsory registration, increases the likelihood that customers will abandon.
Therefore even the most cleverly worded and well designed cookie consent mechanisms, such as BT's, will inevitably cost some sales.
Belron's Craig Sullivan sums this up:
We run many millions of tests every month on our sites. We know from experience and testing, that interrupting people with a new opt-in interface or a 'Halt' message will actively harm both the user experience and our business.
European companies implementing a full opt-in user interface will find two things. Firstly, that their conversion rate drops and secondly, that their ability to use customer tracking reduces their ability to improve their site.
In conclusion...
The results of this survey highlight consumer concerns about privacy, but also the difficulties that websites will face if they are forced to ask for consent to set cookies.
It's possible to have an unobtrusive and consumer friendly cookie notification process if solutions such as Econsultancy's and those adopted by John Lewis are considered to be acceptable.
I appreciate that the ICO is in a difficult position and is trying to take business concerns into account while attempting to take the directive seriously, but the lack of clear guidance has caused much confusion among online businesses.
We're a few weeks away from the 'deadline' and, short of carrying out cookie audits and enhancing privacy policies, most are still unsure how to comply.
It seems that the ICO, which doesn't know what compliance is, will consider this to be enough in most cases (at least for analytics cookies) but how this will apply to other cookies remains to be seen.
However, if strict consent is forced upon websites, then users and businesses will suffer for very little gain.
That said, I think very few businesses will 'fully comply' unless the enforcement of the law after May 26th leaves them no alternative. Let's hope common sense prevails.
(Our report, The EU Cookie Law: A Guide to Compliance, explains the legislation as far as it affects UK online businesses, sets out some practical steps that you can take towards compliance, and includes examples of how websites can gain users' consent for setting cookies. Do check it out.)
Comments (8)
Great summary and analysis Graham, the stats are scary!
I really think web users need to be educated about what are the real risks and what are not risks online. If people in power say that cookies can be dangerous users will panic and stop them all, without realising how beneficial they are to providing a better web experience. Yes I'm biased as I love analytics data, but I'm worried about what's going to come of all this. Hopefully most people will comply by having a clear Privacy Policy and users will soon learn that cookies won't hurt them, or their computers.
Its a ludicrous law. Nobody understands privacy online properly. Google are ignoring this to a large degree - and rightly so but they also perpetuate not providing keywords in signed-in search but conveniently do for AdWords. The UK may gain rights to search websites without a warrant.
Hello Graham...
so scary ya bout the info...
I want to ask,how about deleting all google accounts,ex...blog,email n other website related to the google mail that need the compliament of the Eu cookie law...?
Let say if i delete all my data on google account n the website related to it...
Does the law still should be taken aware by me and they still can fine me in any way if we do not comply within the due on 26th may 2012?
Or I am now safe from being charged or fine by the law..?
Need your advise...
Summit's retail clients are taking a very pragmatic approach to the pending EU cookie law. The general theme is one of understanding through cookie audits and educating consumers with updated privacy policies. It is then a watching brief from the 26th May to see what practically happens with enforcement across retail. We are expecting quite a buzz at tomorrow's Ecommerce Futures Conference http://www.summit.co.uk/online-technology/summit-ecommerce-futures-conference, as we are only now 12 days away from deadline day.
I think this whole issue proves that yes, it is possible for the vast majority of people to be wrong.
This law is retarded. Browsers have had configuration to manage cookies, including the option to disregard them completely for decades now.
Its a fair point that a most users are idiots, who might not know about these controls. Perhaps there is a need to educate them, but should that law not be targeted at browser makers, rather than websites?
This law is misdirected, vague, technically unfeasible to implement and downright infuriating.
The responsibility to enforce this should be with with the tracking companies, Google, Facebook, doubleclick and the likes, it's their service that sets tracking cookies, so it's their service that should determine their use.
These statistics are absolutely useless and I'm not inclined to believe your sources. Nobody cares what a UK consumers opinion on an entirely technical issue is.
Everything is wrong with this law and having all of that thrown from Google, Facebook and whoever else's shoulders onto the innocent web developer is fucking absurd and utterly destructive towards the industry.
I have to agree with the majority of what has been said. The law is vague but the average user needs to learn about the benefits and the dangers so that they can make informed decision rather than panicking. Although for many users they simply don't care.


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Yesterday Kris and I took Kate to The Tridas Center.
It was exciting because we might finally get some answers as to her delays. It was scary for the same reason. Something about blissfully living in ignorance.
We got there 30 minutes early (ours was the first appointment of the day), which was about 7:30 AM. Neither Kris nor I had slept the night before, but it didn't seem to matter.
Dr. Tridas and Nurse Julie met us...Julie taking Kate away to play and observe and Dr. Tridas meeting with us to hear all about Kate. Thankfully, we had about 2 hours to tell him her life story. Kris supplied him with the technical/medical details and I told him what we were looking for, help.
This was really just a first step, a basic evaluation of Kate (and probably us) so not much came of it. He did say she was not autistic and that she didn't have Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). Both very good things.
That gives us hope that Kate will be able to live a pretty normal life...even if we can't. :)
So we await the next steps...
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Kate and The Tridas Center
2 comments:
- dmcghan said...
Happy to hear bro...
- February 10, 2010 at 9:26 PM
- Kellyn said...
Keep your chin up, Chet! I hope you and Kris and rest well- My youngest has always thrown many areas of specialists in a tizzy- he is physically two years younger than he is chronologically. There have many that recommended growth hormones, synthetic hormones, etc., concerned about his mental development and yet without any intervention, he's been moved ahead one grade to offer him more intellectual challenges. Many in the medical arena forget that individuals are just that and that uniqueness is what allows any possibility. As loved as your child is and if she's given the opportunities to succeed, I have no doubt she will suprise you.
- February 11, 2010 at 12:48 AM
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Dead Like Her
How Elisabeth Kübler-Ross went around the bend.
First off—for those speak-no-ill-about-the-dead types—let's get this straight: She's not dead. Yes, sure, the obituaries say Elisabeth Kübler-Ross died, on Aug. 24, but I have it on record that she is not dead.
Back in the '80s, I was writing a critical examination (for Harper's) of Kübler-Ross' "Five Stages of Dying"—the ones she made famous in her 1969 book On Death and Dying and some 15 follow-up tomes (including Death: The Final Stage of Growth). The Stages (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance) became the foundation for an entire "Death 'n' Dying" Movement, as I dubbed it. And while there is no doubt Kübler-Ross made an important contribution to the treatment of dying patients (hospice care, etc.) in an age of increasingly mechanized medicine (and medical doctors), she also contributed to a kind of cultlike reverence for the allegedly superior truth-telling wisdom of the dying (and later the dead as well).
It's a sentimentalizing of mortality that's become incorporated into popular culture and can be seen as the source of such death-obsessed dramas as Touched by an Angel and Dead Like Me—and series like Six Feet Under and the proliferations of CSIs, in which the dead body is fetishized as a catalyst for truth telling. (Perhaps the funniest embodiment and satire upon the trend is Curb Your Enthusiasm's famous "aunt" obituary episode.)
In any case, I'll never forget one conversation I hadwith Kübler-Ross' official spokeswoman. I was asking her whether Kübler-Ross' "heavenly car mechanic" vision (more details anon) was a Near Death Experience, and the spokeswoman corrected me: "Elisabeth doesn't like the term 'Near Death Experience' because she doesn't believe that death exists. No such thing."
The path to the moment in the early '80s when Kübler-Ross declared there is "no such thing as death" (and got into trouble fooling around with some "afterlife entities") can be traced to the landscape of postwar Europe. She was a Swiss resident (born in 1926) who volunteered to help care for Holocaust survivors and came to America after getting a medical degree. There in the early '60s she began specializing in the care of patients deemed to be dying and the neglect of their needs, chief among them, she believed, honesty on the part of doctors and a willingness to listen.
All of this was quite noble, but there came a point when caring became codifying as well. She began identifying herself as a "scientist" and took her accumulated anecdotal experience and declared that the dying process (and then the grieving process, too) had those famous five stages. Staging death had a remarkable appeal and gave an illusion of control over the uncontrollable. She became a saintly icon, the Queen of Death.
But then, quietly, in the late '70s, the Queen began to go around the bend, began declaring there was no death, there were only "transitions" from one permeable boundary to another. And often back. So, if one takes her belief seriously, not only have the reports of her death been exaggerated but reports of death itself have been exaggerated. Death for Kübler-Ross became just a kind of bonus "Sixth Stage," a kind of heavenly spa where one could freshen up before cruising around among the living again. That might be her, looking over your shoulder as you're reading this.
Whether or not Kübler-Ross is dead,her alleged "science" of Death 'n' Dying lives on in all its meretriciousness, rarely challenged any more. According to Kübler-Ross, there's a right way and a wrong way to die, a sober responsible Five Stage Way. Forget "Do not go gentle into that good night" by that alcoholic Welshman Dylan Thomas. You better go gentle, buster, you better die the New Age Way or you'll never appreciate how beautiful death can be. It's the only way to go, you might say.
The famous five stages of dying, of grieving, has gone beyond being a mere meme. It has become a deeply embedded unexamined ideology of death, something that doesn't merely describe the dying process that people go through but shapes—virtually prescribes—the process. It sets up the Five Stages as a kind of Moral Progress, and brands you as inauthentic if youdon't grimly trudge through each. Sort of like a Twelve Step Program for Death.
Until I looked into it, I admit that I was one of the ones content to accept on faith that Kübler-Ross' Five Stages of "Death 'n' Dying" was founded on something more solid than Kübler-Ross' anecdotes. She claimed to have investigated the process like a scientist; she claimed her stages were based on her observations as a doctor and on her encounters with the dying (this was before she claimed she was interacting with actual dead people). She'd become a revered mainstream American icon—and was even nameda Ladies' Home Journal "Woman of the Decade" at the end of the 70s, when she was jetting around the country holding "Death 'n' Dying" workshops to promote her Five Stages and her many books. (The Five Stages were the Mars and Venus of death.) By the '80s she'd helped make death the hot commodity it is now.
What prompted my examination was a small—but stunning—news clipping I came across in the early '80s describing the completely bizarre sexual scandal at Kübler-Ross' retreat in Escondido, Calif., the mountaintop center she called Shanti Nilaya. The scandal concernedthe involvement of Kübler-Ross—and some of the grieving widows visiting her retreat—with a self-proclaimed spirit medium who conned them all into believing he had the ability to channel "afterlife entities." Not only channel them but facilitate their having sex with the grieving widows.
It was, if you ask me, not an aberration but a culmination of Kübler-Ross' love affair with death; love affairs with the dead. But by then her growing belief that "death does not exist" had made her fall prey to a host of spirit mediums and charlatans who claimed they could make contact with the beautiful beings on the Other side.
She herselffirst encountered the "afterlife entities" during an "out of body" experience after one of her "workshops." She wrote that "I saw myself lifted out of my physical body. ... [I]t was as if a whole lot of loving beings were taking all the tired parts out of me, similar to car mechanics in a car repair shop. ... I had an incredible sense that once all the parts were replaced I would be a young and fresh and energetic as I had been prior to the rather exhausting, draining workshop."
After several trips to the auto repair shop and a lot of heart to hearts with the heavenly mechanics, she began to speak about death as the fountain of youth: "People after death become complete again. The blind can see, the deaf can hear, cripples are no longer crippled after all their vital signs have ceased to exist." The emphasis had shifted from a spiritual renewal while still alive, albeit dying, to the physical renewal awaiting one after death. It made death seem all too sweetly attractive (especially at a time when there were deep-rooted problems in the medical establishment's handling of dying patients). Some might say it made suicide seductive to the physically and mentally troubled. Death, in her new view, was a kind of Lourdes-cum-plastic-surgery spa.
But few challenged the escalating nonsense because—after all—she had "discovered" the five stages of death and grieving. She got to people when they were most wounded, scared, and vulnerable, and gave them a secular religion of death.
Enter the spirit medium of Escondido—a guy she had invited to her workshops, who somehow facilitated intercourse between the grieving widows and the"afterlife entities." The scandal erupted when several of the widows came down with similar vaginal infections, and one turned on the light during a session with an "afterlife entity" and discovered the opportunistic spirit medium himself, naked except for a turban. (He offered the completely plausible explanation that the afterlife entities had "cloned" him—and the turban, too, I guess—to help enable the afterlife entities to engage in the pleasures of the flesh.)
I'm not making this up. It's just sort of conveniently been forgotten that the founder of the so called "scientific" "five stages" encouraged and at first defended these practices. "There are those who might say this has damaged my credibility," Kübler-Ross said, when she finally conceded that the spirit medium's behavior "did not meet the standards" of her retreat. But it's not important "whether people believe what I say ... I'm a doctor and a scientist, who simply reports what she sees, hears, and experiences."
Right. Science. It's probably too late to disengage our culture from the unexamined assumptions in the Kübler-Ross death and dying ideology/movement, but we can at least examine them now from a distance. When I first wrote about it I saw it as a kind of confidence trick: In the guise of telling people that they were fearlessly investigating the realm of death, staring death in the face, etc., etc., it was offering people a way of distancing themselves from dread. Turning something scary like death into a "process" with nothing unpredictable to fear. Disguising it with a familiarizing scaffolding of "stages," swathing it in a gauzy romanticism of self-examination, self-expression. Death: the highest point of life, the "final stage of growth."
I also suggested thatits popular success was due in large part to the behavior control function of the five stages and its appeal to hospital and hospice caregivers, who all took D 'n' D workshops. It made the five stages into a kind of moral progress: Potentially disruptive and annoying anger would give way to the more quiet stages of "depression" and "acceptance." Easier on the night nurses.
But now, looking back I think it can be seen as part of the Me-Decade ideology that denial is always bad. We must constantly be staring death in the face and rubbing everybody's nose in it, or we're really not living life. (Although if we spend all our time staring death in the face we have little time left to live life.)
Part of this ideology was rooted in the overheated overrated polemic by the Freudian Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death, in which he blamed all of civilization's problems on its unwillingness to stare death in the face. (One could argue that all civilization's achievements were accomplished by those who didn't have time to dwell on the obvious fact that they were going to die.)
But is denial always a bad thing? Must death be regimented so it loses its mystery? These questions have some contemporary resonances: Are we in denial if we don't watch every terrorist beheading video or gaze repeatedly at the descent of those who jumped from the World Trade Center towers? Come to think of it, aren't Kübler-Ross' five stages arbitrary in their order? Wouldn't it be more fun to go out angry or better, bargaining, than depressed and accepting? Or maybe with a different "stage" of our own devising. Laughter in the dark?
I'm sure Kübler-Ross was well intentioned and serious-minded before she commodified and quantified her caring into a D 'n' D industry. And I understand why people will turn to her books in time of grief when consolation of any sort is the first priority. Millions of the dead and dying have reason to be grateful to her for raising their standard of care. I just feel we who are about to die (well, sooner or later) deserve better than this treacly simulacrum of pseudo-science to guide us. Her Five Stages of dying is the Emperor's New Shroud.


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OLD HICKORY Custom Pro JL18 (I13) Adult Wood Baseball Bat
Product Code: OHJL18
Availability: Custom Made To Order
Availability: Custom Made To Order
Price: $95.00
The Old Hickory JL18 is cut to the I13L profile. The JL18 features a long, large barrel that tapers into a medium handle with a large flared knob. The JL18 has gained popularity among many professional players and is the preferred bat of San Francisco prospect Nick Noonan.
|Custom made to order just for you. Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery in most cases
|Similar to a I13
|Flared Knob
|1 1/4" Bottom Hand
|15/16" Top Hand
|2 9/16" Barrel
|A flat finish is available with most handle options for those who don't like a clear lacquer on the grip
|Choose from Pro Ash, Pro Ink Dot Certified Birch or Pro Ink Dot Certified Maple
Write a reviewYour Name:
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UK Piano Page Piano Forum
Piano Forums at UK Piano Page, feel free to read the posts on our piano forums. If you wish to reply to a post or submit a new post you must register first, it's free.
Please read the Piano Forum FAQ for more details. Also, read the piano FAQ for common questions on pianos Please don't ask us to place a value on your piano as an on site inspection is required. Contact you local piano tuner who will be more than happy to help.
KAWAI CN43 RhythmSection
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KAWAI CN43 RhythmSection
I purchased KAWAI CN43 digital piano a while ago and am very pleased with the piano, playing it almost every day. It really is a fantastic instrument. However, I have a problem trying to understand how to use the rhythm section from the manual. Before I go into any details, can someone let me know if this is the proper place for such a query, or is this web site intended for views as to the quality of pianos?
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Baked Doughnuts. I was proud of myself for trying a doughnut recipe that didn't involve deep-frying. (Did you know that if you deep-fry food at the correct temperature, that the food will absorb less oil? Yes, it's true!) Honestly, baked doughnuts are simply muffins that are baked with a hole. They were "okay", but they didn't fool my husband nor my grown son-- who are
bona fidedoughnut aficionados.
Colleen's Recipes" for inspiring me to make Raised Doughnuts for my boys. You need warm milk, not hot-- otherwise it will kill your yeast. Colleen used butter flavored Crisco, which I simply don't keep in my pantry. I improvised and used some organic vegetable shortening (Whole Foods) and 2 teaspoons of my beloved Buttery Sweet Dough Bakery Emulsion.
SAF Instant Yeast, so I don't need to proof the yeast in warm water. If you use Rapid-Rise Yeast, then sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let it stand for 5 minutes or until foamy...
beater blade, I mix all the ingredients, and then switch over to the dough hook. The dough is kneaded for about five minutes. Perfect!
dough bucket" (my 6-quarts were being used for other projects). I make sure to oil the bowl/bucket and place it into my oven, that I have preheated on WARM for a few minutes, and then turned off. Whoa! That's a lot of dough!
doughnut cutter , but Colleen uses a pineapple can that she's cut out the top and bottom. She then uses a small circle cookie cutter. Clever, huh? Just be sure to dip the cutter into flour. Set cut out donuts on a square of parchment paper that you lightly sprayed with cooking spray. This will help you tremendously when it comes time to lift the donuts into the cooking oil. Spray the tops of the donuts with a little cooking spray and cover loosely with plastic wrap for a second rising (takes about 45 minutes to an hour).
NOTE: Monitoring the heat of the oil is essential. My first doughnut cooked very fast, and dark because the oil was pretty hot!
Thank you, Colleen, for inspiring me to make my first batch of doughnuts. Would I make them again? Well, they are easier to make than I thought. The answer is yes, but not for a long while. I would make this recipe again, but I'd cut the ingredients in half. I'd also make sure I have a lot of company, so there won't be any left.
A printable recipe is below, if you want to try these for yourself. Or, give them to someone and they'll love you for it. Or not.


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The Pin Foundation Advantage: A solid pin pile foundation that reaches deep into the ground without digging holes or pouring concrete! Installation is simple. The precast concrete head is installed at the ground surface, and steel bearing pins are driven through the head and into the ground using simple hand-held tools. This is the best way to install a reliable and durable foundation that will last the lifetime of your structure.
U.S. Patents: #5039256, #6910832 & #7326003


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2007 Science Educator Award, Society for Neuroscience
EducationPhD Physiology, New York Medical College (1978)MS Physiology, New York Medical College (1977)BS Biology. University of Pittsburgh (1968)Awards1978 National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellowship (NINDS)1988 NIDA Director's Award for Significant Achievement1989 ADAMHA Administrator's Award for Meritorious Performance (as part of the Neurosciences Research Branch)1990 PHS Special Recognition Award (as part of Medications Development Working Group)1990 ADAMHA Administrator's Award for Meritorious Performance2003 Media Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence for the Addiction Studies Program for Journalists2007 Society for Neuroscience Educator Award2008 Synapse Award from the Western North Carolina Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience
DirectorshipsDirector, Addition Studies Program (Addictionstudies.org)Director, Medical Neuroscience Block
Boards2002-2010 Board of Directors, Northwest Area Health Education Center2002-2010 Board of Directors Center of Excellence for Research, Teaching and Learning,Wake Forest University2002-Present Board of Directors, North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research2004-2010 Board of Directors, North Carolina Governor's Institute on Alcohol and Substance Abuse2007-2010 Board Chair2012- Board of Directors National Association for Biomedical Research
National CommitteesNational Institute on Drug Abuse Extramural Science Advisory Board, 1993-1995Society for Neuroscience Committee on Animals in Research 1986-1990;2007-presentCommittee on Neuroscience Literacy 1990-1993 (founding member) Research AreaNeural basis of addiction, effects of alcohol on the brain , genetic and environmental influences on drinking and the response to alcohol, effects of stress on alcohol consumption
Brief Summary of ResearchThe Friedman lab uses alcohol self-administration in non-human primates to understand how alcohol-induced brain changes lead to addiction. Brains are studied using both in vivo (PET, MRI) and in vitro (quantitative in vitro receptor autoradiography, cell counting and volume analysis) approaches. A hallmark of the lab is the large number of collaborations it maintains to assure that cutting-edge techniques are applied to research questions. Please use the menu above for more information about Dr. Friedman.
Phone 336-716-8506Fax 336-716-8501
Disclaimer: The information on this website is for general informational purposes only and SHOULD NOT be relied upon as a substitute for sound professional medical advice, evaluation or care from your physician or other qualified health care provider.


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Casey Affleck headed home to his native Massachusetts this week (beg28Jan13) to implore state lawmakers to pass a bill protecting farm animals from cruelty.
The Gone Baby Gone star, who hails from Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a keen animal rights activist and he has thrown his support behind the Massachusetts Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act.
The proposals aim to outlaw inhumane treatment at factory farms such as shutting calves up in veal crates and keeping egg-producing hens in tiny battery cages.
Affleck, who is a vegan, wrote a letter in support of the bill and hand delivered it to the offices of every legislator at the State House in Boston on Tuesday (29Jan13).
Affleck tells the Boston Globe newspaper, "Americans don't see these things (animal cruelty) all that often, but if you YouTube them, they're brutal and immoral. I know there are a lot of issues - children shooting children, people without jobs, education, health care - but I think we can address multiple issues at the same time."
The actor even hopes to meet with lawmakers to discuss the bill, adding, "I'd be happy to talk to legislators about this. Politicians are pretty smart people capable of considering all sides of an issue. Look, if you had a neighbour who was keeping his dog in a teeny tiny space and he couldn't turn around and was just sitting there and wasting away, you'd call the police and the guy would be charged. Why shouldn't we treat farm animals with the same respect?"


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Createx Opaque Base increases opacity when added to Createx Airbrush Transparent Colors. It also extends Createx Airbrush Opaque Colors to lighter values. Createx Opaque Base is available in 4 oz. and 16 oz. bottles.
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Reviewed By Oscar T. G (San Antonio, TX) Reviewed for a 1988 Pontiac Firebird —8/6/2011 2:39 PM
I've always wanted to have a brighter light color coming from my headlights but the auto stores wouldn't carry the bulbs for my vehicle. So when I went online on Auto Anything they had the perfect fit for more car. It was an easy snap to put them on and they work just perfect, now I want to replace every single light bulb with a Putco Pure Halogen bulbs all over my car, including my tail lights.


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Adding and Subtracting Decimals
Lesson 15 of 19
Objective: SWBAT add and subtract decimal numbers using the standard algorithm.
Big Idea: Since decimals are an extension of the base-ten number system, the same algorithms for calculating with whole numbers apply to decimals.
Think About It
To start the lesson, I ask students to share where they've seen decimals in the real world. Students might say shopping at the store, measuring precisely, distances on road signs, etc.
Students then complete the Think About It problem with their partners. Students previously worked with decimals in 5th grade (5.NBT.B.7), so they are able to quickly make sense of and complete this problem.
Resources (1)
Resources (1)
Intro to New Material
To begin the Intro to new Material section, I guide students to complete the notes at the bottom of the Think About It problem page: To add and subtract decimals, we line up the numbers by place value, just like we do with whole numbers.
We then work through the examples together. In addition to practicing adding and subtracting decimal numbers, this lesson gives students an opportunity to strengthen their skills with annotation and representing problems using bar models (these exemplars for the exit ticket illustrate all of components of completed problems).
The steps that students follow to solve problems:
1) Read and annotate the problem.
2) If necessary, represent the problem using a bar model.
3) Decide the operation and write out the number sentence.
4) Estimate the sum or difference by rewriting the numbers to the side, rounding, and then adding or subtracting.
5) Line up both numbers by place value.
6) If necessary, annex 0's.
7) Add or subtract. Write answer using units.
8) Check by comparing to the estimate.
Resources (3)
Resources (3)
Partner Practice
Students work in pairs on the Partner Practice problem set. As they work, I circulate around the room and check in with each group. I am looking for:
- Are students explaining their thinking to their partner?
- Are students annotating the problems?
- Are students estimating first?
- Are students representing the problems with bar models?
- Are students lining up numbers correctly by place value?
- Are students answering the problems in complete sentences?
I am asking:
- Explain you determined this answer.
- Explain your bar model.
- How did you know how to line up the numbers to subtract?
- How did you check your answer with estimation?
After 10 minutes of partner practice time, I ask a student to present his/her work to the class on the problem of his/her choice.
Students then complete the check for understanding problem independently.
Resources (1)
Resources (1)
Independent Practice
Students work on the Independent Practice problem set. While they're working, the Steps for Finding Sums and Differences of Decimals are displayed on the document camera, for students' reference.
As students work, I am circulating around the room and making sure that students have not only found the correct sums or differences, but also have annotated the problems, created accurate bar models, and have answered the questions with full sentences.
Resources (2)
Closing and Exit Ticket
After independent work time, I have students turn to their partners and share their answers to Problem 5 with one another. They adjust their responses based on their conversation.
Students then complete the Exit Ticket independently to close the lesson. This exemplar illustrates what student work can look like.


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WASHINGTON - The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 334,000 last week, a hopeful sign that steady job gains will continue.
The Labor Department says the four-week average, a less volatile measure, decreased 7,250 to 345,250. Both figures are only about 7,000 above their levels of a month ago, which were the lowest in five years.
Applications are a proxy for layoffs. A decline suggests that companies are cutting fewer jobs. Since January, applications have fallen 6.5 per cent.
At the same time, hiring has been steady. Employers added 175,000 jobs in May, the department said last week. That nearly matched the monthly average for the previous year. The unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6 per cent.


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Even though the title of your Writing Challenge entry is not judged, it is the first thing that your readers see, and many readers will be drawn to your entry by a well-chosen title. And a great title may leave a subliminal good first impression with judges; they may start reading your piece with a happy feeling about it before they've even read one sentence.
With that in mind, here are a few tips for choosing a good title. While there are always exceptions, keep these guidelines in mind:
1. Do not, under any circumstances, use the topic as your title. That may go without saying…but by extension:
2. Don't use any well-known expression, Bible verse, television or movie title, book title, song title, or any other phrase that contains the topic (or any form of the topic word). There are several reasons for this rule: you want to avoid the dreaded Roman numerals next to your title (they appear when you've chosen the same title as someone else), you want to avoid any preconceived notions that are already associated with a well-known phrase or title, and you definitely don't want to mess with someone else's copyrighted title. Finally—you're a writer. Don't you want your title to be original to your work?
3. Don't give away the ending of your story with your title. This is especially true if there's a twist or a surprise in the ending. I remember a story from several quarters ago…it was a clever little first person story, and as it was read, the reader was led to the gradual realization that it was being narrated by…a snowman! Clever, right? Unfortunately, the title was "The Snowman".
It's tempting to use a word or phrase from the end as your title, because lots of times that's where the 'punch' is. Resist it.
4. Be sure that the mood of the title matches the mood of the story. If your story is serious, don't give it a cutsie title with rhyming words, alliteration, or puns. If your story is lighthearted, don't give it a ponderous title with words of several syllables.
5. Avoid titles beginning with "The". Often the title can be strengthened by just chopping off the "The". Instead of "The Pillow Fight", try just "Pillow Fight". Instead of "The Leper", just "Leper".
6. A good title should have at least one really strong, interesting word in it. One of the teachers in my school calls these 'salsa' words, while boring words are 'rice cake' words. I took a look through the titles in several recent challenges, and I found these salsa words: rigmarole, satin, camels, wrinkles, doggoned, outrageous, superwoman, safari, puddle, unquenched, Baboo. On the other hand, I also found these rice cake words: relationship, walk, call, destination, now, say, loss, beginning, good.
7. I think people are drawn to one-word titles (if it's a salsa word), OR very long titles, OR titles that contain a person's name (especially if the name is an interesting one). Here are three of each type from recent entries:
Where are Ravens When You Need Them?
Wait a Minute While I Put My Other Foot in My Mouth
Of Course Your Mom Went to Prom
Jippy Jones Goes Missing
Mrs. Chilsome Chills Out
Pastor Joe Meets Miss Imogene Dumple
8. This is just a theory, but I think people are also attracted to titles that contain punctuation, especially in conjunction with salsa words:
Whenever I See that Scar…
Castles, Dungeons, and Other Deadly Things
I Call You Mother: I Call Him Lord
Oh, Baby!
Say What?
Note: Titles never end with periods, even if they happen to be complete sentences. And while I'm on the subject of writing titles correctly—please capitalize key words. If you're in doubt about which words are 'key' words, you can't go wrong if you capitalize every word. TYPING A TITLE IN ALL CAPS IS JUST PLAIN ANNOYING.
I usually write my title last, and sometimes I agonize over it. If I'm really lucky, there's a great little phrase somewhere in the piece that would make a good title. I look for key words and names of characters, and I try to think of action phrases that capture the story (without giving too much away). And then I continue to agonize, sometimes for days.
Homework: Give us your 3 favorite challenge titles, and tell why you like them. OR mention 3 book titles that you really like. OR tell us how you choose your titles, or what you try to avoid. OR just respond to something in this lesson.
And…that's all, folks! I had three more topics in my alphabetical list, but 'theme' doesn't really apply to ultra-short stories, and 'vernacular' was pretty thoroughly covered in 'dialect' and 'dialogue'. In my next class, I hope to cover 'voice' in several different ways.
I've been given several ideas about what to cover in my next class, and I'm still mulling them over. I welcome more input—what would you like to see covered?
The next class won't start until September, at any rate…I'm finishing up this school year, retiring, and taking the summer off to vacation with family, entertain out-of-town friends, prepare for my talks at the FW Conference, and welcome my new grandbaby into the world.
This has been tremendous fun, and I'd like to sincerely thank all of you who have participated, whether little or much. It's truly been a co-operative effort, and I've received far more than I've given.


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here's a little corner of Cardiff that's forever Kyoto. Here, in spitting distance of Cardiff University and within the sprawling student district of the Welsh capital, lies Dakko Dakko, a little cauldron of colour hidden in an otherwise drab office block. Leave your shoes at the doors and you enter a small, busy space, decorated with bright tatami and candy-pastel Mario toys.
And at the far corner you'll find Rhodri Broadbent, a man whose heart's been touched by the Japanese city. He's had a fascinating career, has Broadbent - having worked at Lionhead on the first Fable, the Welsh developer moved out there to join Q-Games, where he got to meet Shigeru Miyamoto while working on Star Fox Command.
Yes...a 2d indie plat former will is definitely a unit seller lol..
One indie game does not a bright future make. And who's to say that this won't be on the Nextbox and PS4 with their "off the shelf" PC parts and far more developed online infrastructure. I'd be shocked if Sony at least doesn't continue to open up their walled garden mentality. Indies will be on every platform that allows them, that's how the industry is flowing.